Dry Ice on Robot?

[jspatz1]

Originally Posted by Jeff Pahl

My opinion would be that if it is doing anything useful (providing cooling) then it is an illegal energy source, as the energy for creating the dry ice did not come from any of the allowed sources of energy that may be used on a robot, and the dry ice effectively becomes a stored energy device.

Every material on the robot took energy to create, that does not mean they are contributing energy to the function of the robot. Wouldn't the sublimation of the dry ice be a net negative (consumer) process in terms of energy? How could it contribute stored energy to the robot?

[RyanCahoon]

Originally Posted by jspatz1

Every material on the robot took energy to create, that does not mean they are contributing energy to the function of the robot. Wouldn't the sublimation of the dry ice be a net negative (consumer) process in terms of energy? How could it contribute stored energy to the robot?

Hmm would that classified as stored energy by deformation of a robot part (where in this case the deformation would be freezing)? IMO you also have a valid point about it not being stored energy; it seems like it would be "stored entropy."

As to how you could use dry ice to provide power to a robot... YouTube: Stirling Engine Running On Dry Ice. Maybe you could use the Stirling engine to power a fan to cool your motors? The energy for this would, as you point out, not be coming from the dry ice but from the ambient temperature, and under those terms could be ruled illegal.

[M.O'Reilly]

I would rather touch dry ice than an 8 inch pneumatic wheel spinning at 5000 RPM...

[orangemoore]

Originally Posted by M.O'Reilly

I would rather touch dry ice than an 8 inch pneumatic wheel spinning at 5000 RPM...

It depends how hard and how long you have to touch each thing.

[jspatz1]

Originally Posted by RyanCahoon

Hmm would that classified as stored energy by deformation of a robot part (where in this case the deformation would be freezing)? IMO you also have a valid point about it not being stored energy; it seems like it would be "stored entropy."

As to how you could use dry ice to provide power to a robot... YouTube: Stirling Engine Running On Dry Ice. Maybe you could use the Stirling engine to power a fan to cool your motors? The energy for this would, as you point out, not be coming from the dry ice but from the ambient temperature, and under those terms could be ruled illegal.

Excellent example. This makes my head hurt. I can just see the new rule now:

"G53: Ambient energy of any form present within the boundaries of the PLAYING FIELD may not be harvested and employed by a ROBOT. This includes; thermal energy present in FIELD ELEMENTS, carpet, atmosphere, or other ROBOTS; radiant or photon energy from venue lighting; acoustic energy from the PA system or spectators; and magnetic or cosmic energy fields or streams which may exist within the venue. Violation: TECHINCAL FOUL"

[seg9585]

Interesting topic. On the line of dry ice, would liquid nitrogen used for the purpose of motor cooling violate any rules?

How about room-temperature mercury for the purpose of electrical conductivity (or if you have a lot of it, liquid-based weight distribution)?

I would think R37 specifically permits the use of ferrofluids as a way to store energy.

[nicholsjj]

According to this MSDS http://avogadro.chem.iastate.edu/MSD...xide_solid.htm Dry Ice can be toxic in a gaseous state. So therefore your team would have to prove that no fumes can escape your robot during operation. The problem then would become the dreaded "what-if" questions that inspectors like to ask.